Sponsor a voluntary chef in Lesvos refugee camp

Dear donors, it's been around a month or so since I came back from Greece and I am now settling back into Scotland, have found a nice wee flat with a good friend of mine, and will be recommencing university next week. It's very difficult to find words to express how grateful I am for your donations, I will try by letting you know a bit about what I was able to do with your generosity.

In late may I arrived on the stunning island of Lesvos, Greece, located 8km off the coast of Turkey. The first thing that struck me arriving into my small apartment 7km north of the camp was how close turkey appeared from my balcony. I began work 2 days after arriving in one of three camps on the island called Kara Tepe. This camp is specifically for families and vulnerable individuals, i.e, people with disabilities and mental health issues. Unlike the other camp Moria, the residents of Kara Tepe lived in containers rather than tents, it is still no real way to live but the conditions are much less harsh. My first month there was concentrated around Ramadan and I was the coordinator of my ngo's kitchen. We provided the residents with the last meal of the day which is to be eaten between 2-3am. Our aim was to provide nutritious meals that the majority enjoyed for between 700-800 people daily. I started my day around 2pm by receiving the day's order of stock and organizing the contents to be prepped, I had a meeting at 3 about how the whole opperation was going and what could be improved. Following this me and my volunteer team would get stuck in with prep. We filled 4 Tupperware boxes each containing something different, a typical day's food would be a small box with cheese dried fruit and nuts, a slightly bigger box with yogurt, a medium box with a soup, or hummus, or eggs, and a large box with salad. Each container/family also received bread and a Banana each.

Every day of Ramadan, without fail, residents would come to help. 4-5 hijabi girls around the age of 15 would appear to wash and cut veggies, men in their 20s would help me carry heavy stock in and out of the fridge, all ages of people would come and wash the 1200 Tupperware boxes that needed washing daily, and I had the honour to work with chefs who had owned their own restaurants back in their respective countries of Syria and Iran. There were also many children running around, that were less helpful, but incredibly cute.

From 4-8:45pm we would prep and cook everything needed, during that time a lovely Iranian woman would be cooking something for the helpers at the same time as doing prep. At 8:50pm everyday the sun would set and we would break fast together (it is worth noting that almost all helpers were participating in Ramadan), a meal in Arabic called shurshur. This was my favourite part of the day, where we would all share an increvable meal together after having worked very hard.

After dinner the packing began, the camp came alive at night and even more residents would show up to help out. We packed 1200 Tupperware boxes with food every day, sorted them into areas of the camp, and then delivered them to the residents. This process took from 10:30-2:30am and could not have been done without the residents help. There was always music and dancing whilst working and this is when I began to make some real lasting friendships with people. While the teams delivered meals I would clean the kitchen and order stock for the next day. We carried out this process, every day, for a month together. I worked 12 hour days with one day off in that month, it was highly stressful and intense, though I'd do it all again without question, just to be able to work with such wonderful people.

After Ramadan I took a step back from the role of kitchen coordinator and became another member of the normal volunteer team. We immediately began a sun shading project. At the time it was between 37-44 degrees and the people were suffering in their containers, which acted like hot boxes in the sun. Our NGO teamed up with other NGOs in order to relieve some of heat in the camp. I got to work learning basic construction. We cut metal sheets into bars that were fixed to the top corners of each container. Rope was then threaded through each bar and tied in a tension knot that meant they could be tightened later if necessary. Following this we fixed green shading material on to the ropes with zip ties that covered each container and the spaces between them. This project took around a month to complete with a few hiccups (it was tricky getting around the trees!) but overall residents were incredibly grateful to be provided with some relief from the heat. At the same time we installed fans in each container as an extra aid. I met some great volunteers during the shading project however I most enjoyed constructing with the refugees who had by this time, become my close friends.

Other than these two projects I also helped run regular activities such as language exchange, and ladies night dance party! The parties were my favourite part of Kara Tepe. Our NGO ran the ladies night and a sister organisation ran the party for everyone. I was very much in my element dancing, I found so much joy in learning traditional dances from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, and The Democratic Republic of Congo, each with their individual style, tradition and history. I saw them all just let go for a couple of hours and have some careless joy, those nights were everything to me.

Many of my most memorable moments didn't come from the activities but rather when I would be frequently invited to families containers for dinner, in times like these I felt most connected to the people, sharing a meal, a space,

A little humanity. Plus the food was unbelievable! Over a meal you learn about their lives and it sinks in that we really are all the same. We all have dreams and aspirations, we all want to be safe and free with our families. The people I met there are my dear friends and I had been told by a couple of close friends how I became well respected in the camp among all groups and ethnicities. I attribute some of that to my dear parents, who taught me to speak to the rich and famous just as you would speak to those subjected to poverty, discrimination and unfortunate circumstance.

Because of your generosity, I was able to do and experience all this and more! I've not even had the time to write about the day I put out a fire or assisted refugees hit by a car (ask me about it sometime), because of you I was able to do this and it really has changed my life. I have some concrete direction now, I know that I will do all I can to make a positive difference within this crisis. So for now, back to university in order to learn all I can and gain the qualifications to help these people. Again, I don't have the words to thank you enough but I hope this has given you some idea of what you have done. I had said I will send something out to those who donated over 50€, I ask for your patience as I am currently writing some poetry about the experience and I hope to send out a small book.

Thank you for everything,

Yours,

Kate